Livable Cities

How Can We Make Our Cities More Sustainable?

Cities are at the nexus of the greatest challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Home to the vast majority of Canadians, cities face acute pressures to build long-term, sustainable infrastructure for growing populations. They are fertile environments for the more efficient use of resources as they seek to address challenges like road congestion, urban waste, and urban sprawl. Ecofiscal policies present cities with significant tools to tackle these issues by creating incentives for sustainable actions and necessary innovations.

Cities Need New Policy Tools

Canadian cities have limited resources, relying heavily on property taxes and transfers from higher-level governments to fund municipal infrastructure. At the same time, urban dwellers often have little incentive to limit their use of city resources, whether that’s roads or garbage dumps or drinking water. As populations grow, demand for these scarce resources rises even more. User fees and pricing incentives can play a critical role in transforming both our management of infrastructure and the way we generate revenue to support smart growth.

Canadians experience environmental and economic challenges viscerally at the local level. Ultimately, urban ecofiscal policies will help shape more livable and sustainable Canadian cities.

Livable City Research

Canadian communities can improve how they manage solid waste. This report finds that policy changes can make our waste systems—from product manufacturing to waste disposal—more efficient and less costly.

Read the Paper

We cannot eliminate the risk of environmental disasters, but we can do more to manage it. Putting a price on environmental risk is key to doing so. This report looks at how we can take more responsible risks.

Read the Paper

Well-designed user fees can improve conservation, fund infrastructure, and protect water quality. This report includes 10 best practices for designing and implementing user fees for water and wastewater services, based on experience in Canadian cities.

Read the Paper

Traffic congestion costs Canadians. Pricing congestion is the missing piece of our urban mobility puzzle. Canada should begin exploring congestion pricing policies now with urban pilot projects supported by all levels of government.

Read the Paper